Chapter 1
17 crimes. Story of my life. I played it as loud as it would go as I sped through the deserted streets of my town. Today was the day I was leaving, I was road tripping… road tripping with no real destination. I pushed my '69 lime green Camaro as fast as she would go and got the hell out of town.
"Goodbye mum," I said and threw my baby into a higher gear as we hit the highway. I was going on this trip alone. Not like I had friends anyway… no one could understand the need for freedom, no one at all. I had a full tank of fuel, enough savings to last long enough and the need for speed. I relaxed back into the seat as I passed the city limits and was officially gone. Out of sight out of mind. My goal today was to drive all day and night and see how far away I got and then I would decide where to hit next. Most seventeen year old girls wouldn't be doing this, though most wouldn't have a beast of a car like mine. I kept my music blaring the whole time, there was barely any cars around, never any cops insight. I hit the first few towns quite quickly, but I didn't stop I was still too close to stop, way to close to home. The fuel tank was starting to drop so I reluctantly slowed my racing car and pulled into a station. I was about 5 hours away so I figured I was far enough away so far. I was pumping the fuel into my tank when I looked up and met the eyes of a young guy probably 18 or 19. His eyes roamed over the Camaro and then they moved to look into my eyes. They were a beautiful violet blue, so dark yet so blue and bright. Jesus I think I almost melted right then and there. He had thick black hair that reached just below his chin, he was gorgeous! He had pale creamy skin and then I noticed the tats that laced around his arms then under the sleeves of his tight white shirt, which was slightly transparent so it allowed me to see a few more black lines underneath. He was wearing the tightest black jeans ever and blue converse sneakers
"Nice car, girl!" he said and smiled delicately. His wasn't too bad either. "It's yours?" he asked conversationally.
"Yeah, she's mine." I said quietly. I wasn't quite sure what this guy's deal was. Beautiful people like that don't talk to girls like me. He smiled again and I wasn't quite sure what was happening.
"Are you on your own?" he asked and looked concerned.
"I'm fine, I don't need anyone." I said and glared. He held up his hands in surrender and backed off.
"Hey I was just asking, you look a little young." He commented and I gave him a glare that would make my last one look like puppy dog eyes.
"I'm 17, how old are you? 50?" I ground out and he laughed. He actually laughed at me.
"To be honest I'm 18… not 50. At least I'm legal." He remarked. "You're running away aren't you?"
"It's not running away if no one cares enough to look for you." I said and slammed my fuel cap on and then shut it. I locked my car and headed inside to pay. As soon as I walked in I caught the scent of hot chips and nearly died. I was so hungry. I ordered a large but then got stuck waiting for them. The mysterious jerk walked in and smiled brightly in a way that just pissed me off.
"Hey I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked what you were doing, I'm one to talk, and I'm running away from school as well." He remarked and smiled guiltily. A guy that looked like that, drove a nice car like that and had tats that could rival a bikey's, went to school? Impressive. I nodded and looked down.
"Excuse me miss?" a voice asked and I don't know why but a cold shiver went down my spine and spread through my bones. I slowly spun around and looked up. A man stood before me, he was probably in his early thirties, was completely bold and had tattoos every inch of his body. But it wasn't even that that bothered me the most. It was the six tears that were tattooed under each eye and the prison greens he was wearing. I knew what the tears meant, my father was in prison… I knew exactly what they meant. They meant death, the people he had killed.
"Yes sir?" I answered acting like I didn't notice the prison greens or the tats. He looked me over with his slimy brown eyes and smiled imperceptibly. Right then I knew something, I could feel it in my bones. I was not getting out of this easily.
"Do you have a phone I could borrow?" he asked and I internally cringed. I had thrown my phone away, I hadn't wanted any connections to my family. Dammit I had to think quickly.
"I don't, but my boyfriend over here should have his." I said praying that this dude had a phone. I looked over at him meaningfully and I thanked god when he nodded in the slightest way and looked the guy over.
"Man, I do. Baby, I can't remember whether I left it in your car or mine. Come check yours as well?" he asked and tilted his head to the car. He turned and smirked at the prisoner.
"She won't let me touch her car, I swear she loves it more than me." He laughed looking absolutely relaxed as he chewed some of my chips. I started walking towards my car and he followed along.
"He's the escaped prisoner that's been on the news, we need to bail now." I whispered and looked over at him. I looked towards his car and barely stopped myself from coming to a halt.
"Your tyres are slashed, we're so screwed man." I said hastily and kept walking towards mine. "Keep walking!" I said in a harsh tone. He did as I said and looked wide eyed and unsure.
"We gotta leave, trust me I can get us away from here in the Camaro." I murmured quietly and glanced back at the station trying to look casual. I noticed the man staring at us and waved in a friendly manner. "Put your arm around me," I demanded and he did as I said. When we reached my car he looked over at me and looked worried.
"He's going to hurt that kid," he whispered. "I have to go back in and get him away from there. You're gonna be the driver okay? When I get the dude that works here I'm gonna fight that guy and then you and the kid are gonna run to the car and if I don't get out in time you guys leave okay?" I knew right then that no, I wouldn't leave. If he was willing to fight like this I wouldn't leave. He opened the car door and sat in my car using the door as a shield so he could pull out his phone.
"Look at me darling," he said and smiled invitingly. "We can do this, I've got you okay? What's your name?"
"Lakyn," I murmured.
"Okay Lake, I'm Ethan. Let's do this. Act like my girlfriend." He smiled as if he wasn't preparing to fight. He slung an arm around my shoulders again and we headed back in. when we reached the door way the prisoner was leaning against the counter saying something to the poor guy.
"Here man," Ethan said handing over his IPhone. "Have at it, looks like I got a flat. Lake, you mind getting the spare out of the back?" he said tossing me the keys.
"Yeah. Hey kid, you got a second? Help me out yeah? You got a spare tyre iron?" I asked and he nodded and hastily grabbed one from behind the counter.
"I'll stay and eat the chips then Lake, my backs really sore today." He murmured cheekily.
"It's cool, me and-" I glanced at the kids name tag. "Lincoln here have got it." I smiled and started to walk outside. A rough cold hand grabbed my shoulder, bunching up my denim jacket.
"Not so fast girl," the prisoner murmured but I had had to put up with my mother's drunken boyfriends for a long long time, I knew what to do when a guy comes at you from behind. I paused for a second and acted like I was going to be the scared little girl they thought I would be and when I felt his grip loosen the slightest bit I swung my elbow up as hard as I could and hit him in the nose then with an agility years of dancing and karate had graced me with, I spun around and sucker punched him in the stomach so he would go down and then with a swift kick to the boy parts he was on the ground. That was when I saw the flash of metal from underneath his shirt.
"Down!" I screamed and I saw Ethan push the kid down behind the counter, shit it was either run or hide, fight or flight. I didn't even think about what I was doing because at that second it was like the whole world went into slow motion as I saw the man turn the gun away from me and onto Lincoln.
"Shit!" Ethan and I dived at the same time, I performed a swift karate move and hit the gun out of his hand and bent it backwards while his other hand clawed at me. God he was so strong but so were all mums' boyfriends. Ethan had hold of him from behind.
"LINCOLN GET THE GUN!" I screamed and he hastily ran and grabbed it. Once he had it, both me and Ethan backed off and I hurried to take it off of Lincoln because I wasn't sure whether he'd crack under the pressure or not. I held the gun on the man and shouted orders to the boys.
"Lincoln get in the Camaro now! Everyone in!" I said slowly as I backed away from the man.
"You fucking move mate and I'll shoot. I think we've established that I'm not afraid to so we're gonna leave okay? No harm done." I wasn't about to become another tear on his face and I wasn't gonna let Ethan and Lincoln be tears either.
"I'll look for you three," the prisoner ground out. "I will find you and I'll kill you. Especially you." He stared at me with his poisonous eyes that now seemed more black then brown. I walked backwards towards the car still holding the gun on him. When I hit the side of the car I finally lowered the gun and I saw him start running towards us. I jumped into the car and gunned the engine. Lincoln was already in the back seat and Ethan swung in at the last second before the Camaro roared as loud as she would go and then spun her wheels as she took off out of there.
"Who the fuck are you?" Ethan said as he stared at me driving like I was on the track again.
"Lakyn Rhys." I answered as I slowed slightly for a tight corner.
"We gotta call this in!" Lincoln exclaimed and was freaking out. "Listen, there's lots of cars in the garage! He'll find us. Fuck, we're going to die." He groaned as he covered his face with his hands.
"I left my car there!" Ethan moaned banging back against the seat. "My car!" he groaned and sounded heartbroken. "My mustang!" I shook my head and rolled my eyes.
"Think yourself lucky that we're alive. That guy is a serial killer, a hit man. Do you guys not watch the news?" I asked in an annoyed voice. They both paused and I rolled my eyes. Of course they don't.
We drove on for a few good hours before everybody stopped freaking out and calmed down. I had a fleeting thought of 'what the hell am I doing with two random guys in my car?' but I had to push it back because I was still internally freaking out over the whole incident, it was like I was having a late reaction or something. I could feel my hands start to shake and I internally cursed. I really had to pull over or something. It was getting quite late at night and I was getting more and more scared. Lincoln was asleep in the back and Ethan was still awake and fidgeting in the seat.
"Are you okay, Lake?" Ethan said softly. Why was he calling me Lake? Nobody had ever given me pet names before. It was kind of nice.
Be strong or tell him the truth? I glanced over at him and he caught me with those blue eyes of his.
"No," I answered and looked back to the road. "I'm really tired, we need to stop somewhere." I said softly so I didn't wake Lincoln. We were just about to come into the next town so I slowed down a little so my beast wouldn't wake up the whole place.
"We can stop in here if you want to. We could get a motel room or something." He murmured and I could feel his eyes on me.
"I don't have enough money for that." I said and for some reason I felt kind of ashamed, though I wasn't sure what exactly I was ashamed of.
"It's okay, I've got it." He said casually. I was so tired and freaked out I didn't really have time to argue. I settled with simply nodding and focused on finding us a place to sleep.
It wasn't long before we came across a very aged looking bed and breakfast so I pulled in there and killed the ignition. I sighed as I sat back and closed my eyes for a few seconds. My eyes shot open when I felt a tentative warm hand lightly touch my arm.
"Come on, Lake. Let's go get a room and then we'll come back for Lincoln." He said and I nodded because even though Lincoln was in the car, I didn't want to stay out here alone. I dragged myself out of the car and followed closely behind Ethan as he made his way up to the big front doors. We pushed inside and a bored looking girl sat at the table reading a magazine and barely even looked up when we walked in. But when she did and she saw Ethan standing there looking rumpled and absolutely gorgeous she turned on her flirtatious smile and not so subtly pushed her arms together so her boobs almost popped out of her shirt. When he smiled invitingly back I felt a stab of annoyance and maybe a bit of something else mixed in as well.
"Hello," he murmured in his musical voice and smiled. "I was wondering if we could get a room here for tonight please?" he said politely. She flicked through her folder and only came up with one room.
"The only one we have available is the couples retreat room." She said as she looked me over with distaste.
"That's okay, perfect actually!" Ethan grinned when he saw the look on my face. "We'll take it." He sorted out all the payment stuff and then went back out while I followed closely behind him, almost touching him. To be honest I was pretty scared of the surrounding bushes. Anyone could be hiding in them. I was busy sorting through my bag in the boot to find clothes when I felt a hand touch my back. I jumped so badly I nearly fell and spun around ready to attack whoever it was. When I spun with my arms up defensively I came face to face with Ethan's wary eyes.
"Hey, it's okay!" he said softly and placed a hand on my shoulder. He turned to Lincoln who was lingering around us. "Here's the key dude, we'll be up in a sec." he said kindly. He turned back to me and then did the most unexpected thing ever and pulled me into a tight hug.
"I know you're scared Lake, but nothing will hurt you okay?" he said gently and for some crazy reason I just let him hug me. I must have been really freaking scared. "I just want to thank you for saving us all today Lakyn, if it hadn't been for you we wouldn't have made it." He said sincerely and stepped back slightly. I could just see the light blush colouring his cheeks and it was so beautiful. I hastily turned away and grabbed my bag, locked my car up and then headed up to the room where I would finally get some sleep!